LL: Hi johloh! Can you tell us a little about what you do?
J: I’m the founder of Sprite Stitch and the Sprite Stitch Forums. But, that doesn’t pay the bills… I’m also a high school teacher of physics and math.
LL: How did you get into cross stitch?
J: I did lots of crafts as a kid, but never cross stitch. My first cross stitch was completed right after I started up the blog back in 2007. My first stitching was of piston honda, I had planned on doing the entire cast of Punch-Out but then the blog got some buzz and maintaining the site distracted me from that project. I think the initial spotting that got my gears going was the work of Becky Schaefer. Her stuff is amazing!
LL: Everyone knows you’re a Luigi fan. How did that come about, and did it influence your crafting?
J: As a young kid we didn’t own a NES, so playing super mario was always over at friends houses. That meant by default I had to be player 2, so I always ended up playing Luigi. After the site took off it seemed that everyone always did mario stuff, so I had to take it upon my self to champion the less popular brother. I think one of my favorite works I’ve completed is my Bitter Luigi project.
LL: Sprite Stitch is an awesome place, and of course we have you to thank for that. What made you start it up?
J: At the time there were only a couple video game cross stitches on the web, a post or two on random blogs and a couple pictures on flickr. The site was first started as just a place to share the couple projects that I was working on, I never intended it to be much, basically just a personal craft blog. After the site got a lot of hits through some more popular blogs I realized it was a niche that people were interested in and just went after it.
The forums were started to alleviate the massive amounts of projects people were sending me by email! I realized that people really needed a venue to share their work.
LL: Where do you intend to take it in the future?
J: I’m not too sure on the future of the site, it is in a pretty well functioning position right now. I’ve been looking into branching out onto some new projects, lots of stuff in the initial planning stages.
LL: I hear your planning on starting a new blog. Whats’s that about, and do you think your just a blogging type of person?
J: I’ve been bouncing ideas around about a site based more around the classic gaming that so many of us enjoy. Not so much a blog but more of a community competition kind of site. I can’t get my head around the exact way I want to go about doing it, but think Twin Galaxies mixed with the Olympics. I don’t think that makes any sense…give me another month.
LL: You’re also in a craft book, and I hear your planning to write your own. It appears your great at anything you turn your hand to. Do you enjoying doing new things, or do you simply have a lot on your plate right now?
J: There are always too many things on my plate…but, yeah I love taking on new projects, I just get bored really easily. Websites, projects, hobbies, jobs, cities, I need change and new challenges to avoid boredom. I’m really good at finishing something to about 80%, then starting something new… Its a character flaw I’m working on improving.
As far as the book, we are still in the initial planning/proposal stages of it. Technically we are actually in the proposal stage of two books: Both craft related, one sprite stitch related. Hopefully we will have more news on those in the near future.
LL: Are you working on any interesting projects at the moment? I understand your currently doing your house up, but do you stitch anything in your down time?
J: Yup, remodeling a house and just started our vegetable garden as the weather in rainy Oregon is finally starting to turn. I just finished a TOS star trek cross stitch related to the question above, unfortunately I can’t post that quite yet. About the only down time I can find these days is spent sleeping (we also have a 1 and 2 year old).
LL: Most of your influences are NES games, but where do you get your influences to make patterns with them?
J: I usually start with a game I’d like to do a project on, then think about what my strongest memories of the game were as a kid. From there I usually have a good idea, if not I just start looking through all the sprites and that usually strikes some inspiration. Nostalgia of games I played as a kid are really what drives it all… the main reason I think most people are on this site.
LL: Anything else you want to add?
J: If you haven’t read over the forums yet, go do it now! That is where all the best stuff on the site happens… really, go read them now… and don’t just lurk, take some photos and get your work up there!
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